T'was the Night Before Christmas
by The Lonely Traveler
Summary: Short stories taking place in the Normandy during Christmas. Various pairings.
1. Chapter 1

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the Normandy not a creature was stirring not even a space hamster. Shepard lay awake in bed, the silence deafening to her. She knew the next morning was Christmas, her favorite holiday. Shepard had gotten Christmas decorations the last time they had shore leave on the Citadel. She couldn't sleep and had not interest in a writing a report from their last mission, so decided to decorate the mess hall.

She was putting up streamers around the mess table when Kaidan came out of the med bay. He was still groggy from his migraine medication when he saw Shepard standing on a chair with garland.

"Hey Kaidan, want to help?" She said when he noticed him staring at her.

"What are you doing Commander?"

"Well, tomorrow is Christmas, I don't know if you celebrate it, but I thought the ship looked bleak without any Holiday spirit."

"Where did you get the decorations?"

"Went shopping on the Citadel, just in case, even got a tree in my room."

"You're kidding?"

"No, when I lived in Mindoir, my family and I would always go all out for Christmas. We always had a theme. I haven't really had a chance to celebrate since then."

"What do you need help with?"

"Will you get the tree from my room place it somewhere around here?"

"On it ma'am."

As they were decorating the tree, he was sure he heard Shepard humming, the "Heat Meiser song." He enjoyed seeing this side of her, carefree, almost child-like.

Christmas morning arrived and the crew started trickling in. Ashley one of the first to arrive, stared surprised at the decorations, though more surprising was Shepard and Kaidan asleep on the floor, with his arm wrapped around her shoulders. She took a picture of them with her Omni-tool, and decided to keep it for future blackmail.

"LT, Skipper wake up."

They both woke with a start.

"So did you two decorate the mess?"

Shepard and Kaidan then realized their position. Kaidan quickly took his arm off her shoulder. Ashley smirked.

"Uh, yeah, it was," Kaidan answered staring down at the floor.

"All night long?"

"Yeah."

Ashley loved picking on them. "Well nice job. Merry Christmas Skipper, LT," and walked away to get coffee.

Kaidan got up and said, "Merry Christmas Commander, I...had fun last night," leaving in a hurry.

Shepard whispered, "Merry Christmas Kaidan."

3 Years Later

Shepard entered her cabin and found Kaidan sitting on the couch with a box.

"What's in there?"

"Open it."

It was her old decorations.

"You kept them?"

"I thought you might want to use them."

"Alright, let's get decorating."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Takes place after Priority: Horizon

Pairing: MShep/Tali

Shepard sat thinking at his desk thinking for ideas for Tali's Christmas gift. He knew quarians didn't celebrate the holiday, but he still wanted to get something nice.

_I should probably finish these Spectre reports, _he thought. Instead, he scrolled down his search query on his omni-tool on _Perfect gifts for a quarian girlfriend._ He saw ads for new suits, helmets. _Hmm, too obvious._ _Maybe a new omni-tool, but which one, why are there so many, maybe I should ask Garrus for his advice. No, I can do this, I can buy a gift by myself._ _Why is this so hard? It'd be easier to take down a Reaper. Hmm…I got it!_

3 Weeks Later

Shepard headed down to the engineering room and found Tali alone, at her usual spot.

"Shepard, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to give you this. It's a Christmas gift, a holiday humans celebrate…"

Tali cut him off, "I know the holiday, Shepard. I have been doing research on human customs."

"Oh, well, I wanted to give you this. I hope you like it."

"Thanks, Shepard."

"I should go."

Tali wanted to wait until her shift finished to open the gift, but she kept staring at it, and gave in. She opened the box, and found a packet of straws, with a note attached, _Remembered how fond you are of them. In case of another emergency. _

Tali sighed. _Matthew Fitzwilliam Shepard, you can forget about your Christmas gift. _


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own ME

Takes place 3 years after the Reaper War.

"Come on Shepard, get up," Kaidan called to Shepard from the closet.

"What time is it?" Shepard asked as she groggily made her way to the bathroom.

"Finally, you're up," Kaidan said he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"What are you wearing?"

"My mom sent it, she made one for you too." It was a blue knitted sweater with a huge snowflake on it. "I thought you said you loved Christmas."

"Yea, but not the ugly sweaters part of it," she mumbled under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing, just that I love you."

"Sure," he chuckled, "I'll wait for you downstairs."

Shepard saw Kaidan had left the sweater his mom had made in their bedroom. She sighed picked it up and realized it wasn't horrendous. It was black with a N7 insignia on the chest.

"Ready?" Kaidan asked.

"I suppose so," Shepard said.

"Oh come on, it won't be so bad."

"If you say so."

They arrived at the Iceburg Ice Rink.

"I don't know about this, Kaidan"

"The Great Commander Shepard who faced down a Reaper on foot, and saved the galaxy, is afraid of a little ice," Kaidan laughed.

"It's not funny. I've never done this. What if I fall?"

"Then I'll catch you. Don't worry, I'll help you," Kaidan kissed Shepard lightly on her lips.

"Let's get the skates, before I change my mind."

"Shepard, breathe, it's just ice. I have you."

"I know."

They started slow, going around the rink twice.

"I'm going to let you go. I'll skate in front of you."

"Ok."

They were half way across the rink, when she tripped on one of her skates, and fell on top of Kaidan.

"Well now this part of ice skating I like," Shepard whispered in his ear.

"Shepard, come on, get off."

Shepard laughed and attempted to get up, but fell down.

"Who would have thought Commander Shepard would be clumsy on ice?"

"Ha, ha, very funny. So are we just going to stay down here?" Shepard replied sarcastically.

"That was fun, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't so bad," and kissed him. "Now let's get home, and continue on my favorite part of ice-skating."


End file.
